Steve Thorpe – Working at SETT

Simon: OK, so that was the role you carried out throughout Trenchant, and then what did you do after that one?

So I came to Submarine Escape Training.

Simon: Ok, and that’s something you volunteered for?

So, the Coxswain that was onboard Trenchant, he came as a Senior Instructor here at Gosport, and he asked me and another guy whether we’d be interested in coming to be a Swimboy at Gosport, which is a completely unique job and ultimately that paved the way to what job I’m doing now in civvy street, so we jumped at the chance. So, I came down here in ’98, qualified in parachuting, qualified as a Swimboy, did lots of gucchi stuff, boat driving and stuff …

Simon: What’s gucchi stuff? Fancy stuff?

Well just completely different way of doing things. You know, you were out on speedboats, you were parachuting, you were swimming in a 30-metre pool of water, just a great, great job to do you know? And teaching loads of different people from all different Navies in the world, as you alluded to earlier.

Simon: So, you have the same camaraderie but you’re on the surface.

Well, you’re in a training environment, but because it wasn’t classroom based really, it was all activity based, you had 30 Instructors and you were all looking out for one another, you were always trying to train, so you always had somebody mentoring you to get you qualified. So, it was a really good job for about two years I did that. It was great.